To determine the impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems and freshwater quality and availability in the High Arctic, we created a water-shed and landscape ecosystem observation network. 

This project brings together key sea ice researchers to examine the processes that cause the observed changes in sea ice dynamic and thermodynamic processes, snow cover, and physical coupling across the ocean-sea ice-atmosphere (OSA) interface.

The goal of this project is to provide the modelling framework for future impact studies on the Canadian Arctic Archipelago’s pack ice, oceanography and marine food web.

To what extent will shipping develop in the Northwest and Northeast Passages, and with what kind of shipping: will it be transit shipping, fishing, tourism, transportation induced by natural resources mining?

This project will explore the cultural, economic and environmental impacts of mineral exploration and development on four Arctic communities.

Climate warming is driving a rapid transformation of polar ecosystems, and we urgently need to study the vulnerability of seafloor biodiversity to changes that are already underway.

Our project examines the fundamental questions: what is Arctic security? What should policy makers anticipate that the circumpolar world will look like in the future, given the various forces that are now transforming this region?

Some implications of climate change for the marine Arctic ecosystem are fairly intuitive. For instance, polar bears and ringed seals are bound to be negatively impacted by the loss of ice that provides the physical platform for their hunting and reproduction. Other consequences are less obvious.

Using in-depth case studies, this project will identify and characterize the vulnerability of food systems in four regional Inuit centers (RIC) (Iqaluit, Arviat, Inuvik and Kuujjuak) to climate change as a basis for identifying adaptation entry points.

Seasonal changes in the northern landscape, together with extreme weather events, can create instability and hazards, including flooding, landslides, thaw failure and subsidence, coastal ice push, storm surges, and coastal erosion. Our project team is measuring both the drivers of change and the effects of instability in community landscapes at selected sites across the Arctic.